Furiae
by Sitara
Summary: Go back to the time when everything changed for an ordinary witch at the time of godesses and furies. How the events of a single night would bring her to her knees, crying out for vengeance. She would soon bring matters into her own hands... but fate as t


Author: Sitara  
Email: midnyt_blu@hotmail.com  
  
Dis/claimer: The NightWorld belongs to Lisa Jane Smith, Clan Tempest belongs to   
Heather Trend. Layla Tempest is used with permission. For more info on the   
Tempests go to . All other characters are my own and belong to me.   
  
The Furiae (Erinyes) were goddesses of vengeance and retribution. Those that the Erinyes sought to punish they pursued relentlessly, driving them to madness and despair for their crimes, until, through ritual purification, they were cleansed of their sins.  
Prologue:  
A thunderstorm.  
  
If it weren't for the serious situation at hand, she would have laughed at the irony of it all. It seemed that even the elements were against her tonight. But like everything else, the elements could go to hell for now.  
  
So there she was, standing in front of the enormous wooden door of the Mansion. The tall dark façade of the building towered over her almost   
mockingly. She turned her back against it.   
  
Furia looked out past the gardens and the closed gates, and there, she decided, would be her destination. Out those gates, free from these chains and a hundred miles away she'd find the answers. A loud crack of lightning shed light on her hard-set face for a split second, before the shadows crept back to consume everything again. Thunder rolled on across the skies.   
  
She was leaving and that was final. No matter what the Clan said, no matter what Layla said. No matter the threats, or the punishment. She was ready to leave the Clan behind her. No, no. This was not only about the Tempests. It was much more.  
  
There was so much more out there out of the mansion, where the rest of the world lived. So much to learn, experience, so much power to be discovered and harnessed. So many questions that she could not answer inside these stone walls, not with the Clan behind and front of her every step of the way. If she was going to be called an insolent traitor because of that, she wouldn't even waste her time trying to make them think otherwise.  
  
Traitor.   
  
It was just a word, and funny, it never seemed to affect her at all. She supposed it that was because she never really cared much, she never really felt a reason to need to belong there. Hah. Belong? Where did she belong if not inside the Mansion with the rest of her Clan?   
  
Back in Greece?  
  
Or perhaps nowhere at all?  
  
She stepped forward with the rain pouring down, her long dark hair clung to her shoulders. Furia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to soothe her frayed nerves.   
  
His face entered her mind again for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. And maybe it was just the cold streams of water falling down on her in that instant and chilling her to the bone, but something about just the thought of him made her think back, think hard on what she was going to do. If he where with her for just that split second, would he stay back inside those doors behind her, or would he be the one to grab her hand and run bursting through the gates?  
  
^Dion...^  
  
The face attached to the name had clear gray eyes and a pair of lips that made him more handsome when he smiled. The boy that she knew was tall with a slim athletic build, and a voice that made her smile even after the years that they had grown up together. His hair was brown that had a tinge of red to it under the sun, that reminded her of the sweet wine Galana made every summer.   
  
But now it was dark in the village, the moon hung up high like a beacon in the clear night sky. There was Dion, standing in the shadows, a thousand years away from where she stood in the rain. She watched quietly as he brought out a dagger from his robes, intent on a certain something not too far away. It was blatantly obvious that he could not see her, because here she had no body. Here she did not exist.   
  
Memories of her old village in that faraway land suddenly held their own life. It was a place that she had often visited in her meditation before, but now this was something entirely different. Furia watched on with an aching heart.   
***  
He couldn't breathe.  
  
It was always at times like this, hiding in the darkness and from the darkness, weapon in his hand poised and ready to strike. Times like this when he felt his heart in his throat beating like a drum, knowing that one misstep could cause him his life and stop him from breathing entirely.   
  
Oh, but why did he keep coming back to this place?  
  
Dion kept his gaze in front of him, creeping closer, ever closer to the dark figure that crouched over something too obscure from his point of view. There was a faint muffled sound that came from there, causing the hairs on his arms to stand on end. He had his fears, and this was one of them. And vaguely, he heard something inside him screaming, warning against the danger and the night itself. Surely he didn't want to be the next meal?   
  
But this is what he promised to do. A few steps closer and he just *knew*.  
  
Huge lamplike green eyes shone in the dark, the creature's stare fixed on him. And for a second Dion couldn't move, paralyzed. Terrified. It took that second of Dion's terror for the creature to drop what he was holding onto and just *disappear*. By the time Dion blinked, the creature was gone.   
  
Scolding himself for not jumping in at the first sight of it, Dion shook his head, and stepped closer to inspect what the monster had been holding. Already the smell of blood was in the air, pungent and metallic, a smell he was all too familiar with. So he didn't even flinch at the sight of the young woman, throat torn out and blood flowing freely.   
  
A horrific scream cut through the silence from somewhere else, Dion lost all sense of hunted and hunter and ran to the source.   
  
The forest was dark, the air heated with the smell of danger. The wood nymphs were screaming in terror more with each step, Dion knew the monster was nearby. Something lay there like an animal, the smell of blood the strongest here. He stopped dead.   
  
^Oh Goddess, no.^ 


End file.
